Smart home automation market to hit $917 million by 2017

By Hamish Barwick

Computerworld|

The Australian smart home automation market is expected to hit $917 million in 2017 due to cheaper technology and demand for energy efficient devices.

Telsyte's Australia Smart Home Automation Study 2014 found that the market will generate $160 million in revenue from security, monitoring, hubs and sensor devices this year, growing to $917 million in 2017. The study included interviews with 1018 Australian consumers.

One segment expected to grow in popularity with consumers is smart light bulbs such as the Phillips Hue, a light bulb which is connected to the Web. Consumers buy the Hue light bulbs and a 'puck', which includes an Ethernet connector that talks wirelessly to an iPad.

Telsyte senior research manager Sam Yip, said the centrepiece of a smart home will be a standards-based master control system or hub that is manufacturer agnostic. The hub will connect networked devices in the home.

“It is important to think wider than just a black box that connects everything,” he told Computerworld Australia.

“The smart home is all about the software. A hub is essentially a router with the ability to connect disparate sensors and components around the house. It’s the software that runs on top that will make these devices controllable and programmable via the cloud or tablets/smartphones.Consumers will be able to login, manage appliances, track and monitor costs.”

Yip said the smart home hub automation components will give service providers such as telecommunication companies and ISPs an opportunity to generate subscription revenue including security monitoring, in the future.

“Telco and ISP offerings to date have been limited and connectivity based rather than being controllable, programmable or intelligent,” he said. “The most important thing a telco can do is offer robust broadband into the home and then work on the connectivity into the hub.”